Photo credit: Dinjanpan Paul.
16 June 2020
Results of the most recent polls
"With fewer than 150 days until Americans choose a President for the next four years, Abacus (one of Canada’s most accurate polling companies in the 2019 federal election) surveyed 1500 Americans on their feelings about the choice coming up..."
The margin of error is +/- 2.5 points. More charts and analysis at Abacus Data, via Jobsanger.
Also this:
Donald Trump has been hit by a rash of polls showing Joe Biden pulling ahead of him – and now, a new survey by Scott Rasmussen for website Just the News shows him falling behind Mr Biden nationally by 12 points.
The latest poll will be particularly galling for the president given it comes from Mr Rasmussen, founder of Rasmussen Reports. The company is one of the only pollsters whose results Mr Trump routinely cites when celebrating his own numbers. frequently writing that it was an outlier in predicting he would win the 2016 election.
And this from The Economist:
Via Flowing Data
We are all part of something greater
Don't scroll past. Watch this.
Addendum: Even astronauts are affected by the "overview effect." Hat tip to reader kklutzke.
Trump discovers a panacea
President Trump on Monday downplayed concerns of a rising number of coronavirus cases in states across the country, indicating that the increase was due to more testing.
"If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, if any,” Trump said during a White House event highlighting administration actions to help senior citizens.If this is true for coronavirus, it would also be true for STIDs, colon cancer, breast cancer, hyperlipidemia...
Related: Please define "cases" of coronavirus
Tour of a vandalized Walmart
Look at this from r/peopleofwalmart
I'll try to find a YouTube version to embed, but for now this will have to do. You can listen to her voice her despair and anger at the source.
15 June 2020
Candle exhibiting "tunneling"
LPT: Large candles have a minimum first burn time to prevent tunneling. The first burn is the most important. Candles should burn one hour for every 1 inch in diameter of the actual candle size. Therefore, a 4 inch diameter candle should burn for a minimum of 4 hours to liquefy the entire top layer of wax. If the wax is not allowed to liquefy or to melt from edge to edge of the jar or tumbler, it will create a 'memory ring,' especially if this is the first time the candle is lit. Once a candle has this 'memory ring,' it will continue to tunnel and to burn that way for the life of the candle.Photo: candle in my closet.
Dolly Parton statue may replace Nathan Bedford Forrest's
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WBMA) – A statue of former KKK leader and Confederate soldier Nathan Bedford Forrest that has been in the Tennessee capitol for over 40 years could be replaced by another famous Tennessean.
Local lawmakers are considering options to replace Forrest and according to reports, Dolly Parton is one candidate.
The Tennessean reported in December last year that Republican state Rep. Jeremy Faison was the first person to bring up the idea of removing the statue that's been in the capitol building since 1978. Faison said he could "think of 100 other people deserving of that post" before suggesting Parton because of her popularity and status as a local and national role model.More on this story at WBMA (Birmingham). Those unfamiliar with Dolly should read this 2019 post and listen to at least part of the podcast (start at 01:30 to skip the ad and promo).
This is how our library reopened
At the Fitchburg, Wisconsin public library, patrons have historically logged on to their account to request a book/music CD/DVD etc. Staff members normally find the item and place it on your designated shelf inside the building, where you then pick it up at your leisure.
Now, in order to follow coronavirus precautions, the process begins the same way, but now your items are placed in grocery bags labeled with the first three letters of your first and last name. You walk over and pick the bag up and take the items home (I got six DVDs this morning, so expect less blogging in the coming week). No need to show a library card when doing so (because there are times when you just need to trust people).
Joe Biden campaign ad
The ad features footage of Lindsey Graham (real, not fake) castigating Donald Trump prior to the 2016 election and praising Joe Biden ("... what's not to like? ... as good a man as God ever made") (separate video* re Biden at the link).
The ad will run in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Washington DC - on Fox News !!
Via BoingBoing, where there is a trenchant discussion thread.
* "The video [praising Biden] is from when Biden attended a ceremony marking Graham ending 33 years of service with the Air National Guard. Biden had a habit of doing this kind of thing, and establishing thereby personal relationships with Republican senators, which is part of why he talks so much about reaching across the aisle. What I think he doesn’t appreciate is the degree to which the set of Republicans amenable to this kind of approach has either died, been replaced by tea party or Qanon fanatics, or, like Graham, given up what little soul they might once have had to the Impeached One."
13 June 2020
Optical illusion
Amended slightly by me to remove an unnecessary and distracting factor from the one at the via.
Boris Johnson channeled Donald Trump
As reported by The Telegraph:
Boris Johnson scrapped a team of senior ministers charged with preparing the country for a pandemic six months before the outbreak of coronavirus in the UK, according to a report.
According to the Daily Mail, the group - called the Threats, Hazards, Resilience and Contingency Committee (THRCC) - was suspended by former prime minister Theresa May on the advice of Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill so that civil servants and ministers could focus on Brexit.
The Government committee, which included Cabinet ministers such as Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, Michael Gove and Gavin Williamson, was abolished by Mr Johnson a few days after he entered Downing Street. The committee was axed without discussing virus control plans.Trump, of course, trashed or ignored the "pandemic playbook" left for him by the Obama adminnistration.
Coronavirus survivor hospital bill: 181 pages long, $1,100,000
He will not have to pay all of it; details at the Seattle Times.
Discussion thread at the WellThatSucks subreddit consists of a) Americans describing things like their thousand-dollar ambulance rides, and b) non-Americans asking why the fuck does America think this is a normal health care system.
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